Friday, 19 February 2010

A House

I find the history of buildings, whether they be monumental statements of public and private pride or the humblest of constructions, fascinating.

I came upon this reference to a house in Stornoway:

20 Bayhead18th centuryA lone survivor, albeit altered, of the old settlement around Bayhead.The building's age is indicated by its roof pitch, low entrance and the disposition of windows, which are well set back into their reveals.

It is particularly awkward to accurately trace the occupancy of a specific building when interrogating a database of census transcriptions.

In England, it is possible to view original images of the census returns and page back and forth, thus retracing the steps taken by each enumerator and this is particularly useful in rural areas where roads and houses often lack precision in naming and numbering.

The Scottish records cannot be researched in this manner and one has to resort to a number of tricks to locate the information that is being sort. But that's part of the fun!

1821 - The Town Plan of 1821 should enable identification of the owner of the building.it also shows the extent of the bay that lay North of it, in contrast to the present day situation near the head of the bay. I think it was the property of a Mr D McDonald in 1821, the 6th site down from New Street.

1911
Donald Macfarquhar dies at No 22 but the Informant is his Brother-in-Law, Archibald Munro of No 20.
Archibald was the Town Clerk and Harbour Master and husband of Donald's sister, Mary.

1927
John Kerr, Blacksmith, 27, b. Stornoway and wife Mary Ann Macdonald 26
(According to Marriage Certificate, at time of his Death in 1957 he was a Motor Mechanic)

1935
Ronald MacFarquhar, but I think it was Donald!
(According to Death Certificate of Donald Kerr, 51, Building Contractor, of 10 Bayhead Street)

1945
Donald MacFarquhar, Grain Merchant, son of the 1901 Blacksmith & Wheelwright
(According to his wife Mary Kerr's Death Certificate - she was the third child of Alexander John Kerr and his first wife, Margaret Macarthur)